The client, a top-50 U.S. freight broker by load volume, was growing fast — and their operations were starting to buckle under the weight of that growth. With over 1,200 active carrier relationships and thousands of load requests moving through their system each week, dispatchers were still making matching decisions the same way they had at 200 loads per day: spreadsheets, phone calls, and institutional knowledge.

The cracks were measurable. Empty miles — trucks completing a delivery with no return load — were running at 34%, well above the 22% industry benchmark. Match confirmation was taking an average of 47 minutes, meaning time-sensitive freight was routinely being offered to competitors who could respond faster. And because matching quality depended on which dispatcher handled the load, pricing and carrier selection varied significantly across the team — leaving both margin and customer experience on the table.